32 COMMON BEAKES. 



I have no fault to find with these definitions, but would ob- 

 serve, that having commonly found both these, and a number 

 of intermediate forms, on the same rhizome, I am not inclined 

 to regard them as of sufiicient importance to take rank as 

 varieties : dissimilarity in the leaves of the same individual 

 plant occur, not only in other ferns, but also in ph^nogamous 

 plants ; they are particularly observable in the mulberry. 



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Few gardeners could be induced to cultivate this fern, other- 

 wise than in a fernery ; and there it is extremely difficult to 

 keep it within moderate limits. In a greenhouse it is more 

 manageable, and, coming up abundantly in peat, and every de- 

 scription of earth brought from commons, it has a remarkably 

 elegant and pleasing ajipearance while still small : it is, how- 

 ever, best to eradicate the rhizomes as soon as the fronds have 

 assumed the tints of autumn. 



In an economical point of view, this is the most valuable of 

 our British ferns. " If cut while green," says Lightfoot in his 

 ' Flora Scotica' (ii. 658), " and left to rot upon the ground, it 

 is a good improver of the land : * * it is an excellent ma- 

 nure for potatoes, and if buried beneath their roots, it never 

 fails to produce a good crop : * * it makes a brisk fire for 

 the purposes of brewing and baking. * * In many of the 

 western isles [of Scotland], the people gain a very considerable 

 profit by the sale of the ashes to soap and glass makers." Mr. 

 Bladon, of Pont-y-Pool, in the ' Magazine of Natural History ' 

 (n. s. iv. 242), informs us that " in many of the open mountain- 

 ous parts of Wales, where it grows abundantly, the brakes is 

 cut down in the summer, and, after being well dried, is burned 

 by the cottagers in large heaps, for the sake of the alkali con- 

 tained in the ashes : when sufficiently burned, enough water 

 is sprinkled on the ashes to make them adhere together, 

 when they are rolled into round balls, about two inches or 



